Mccaffrey Leading Way For Stanford As A Wide Receiver

The East Penn Conference has earned a reputation as a big lineman/good ground game football league.

But if Ed McCaffrey and Jon Pinckney aren't careful, they may just trash that reputation - and get people thinking of the Lehigh Valley as a receiving hotbed.

McCaffrey, a graduate of Central Catholic, and Pinckney, a Bethlehem Catholic grad, have combined for over 1,000 receiving yards this season as wide receivers for Stanford University.

McCaffrey's 45 catches rank him fourth in the Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-10) with a five-catch-per-game average and his 756 receiving yards also rank him fourth in the PAC-10. The 6-6, 225-pound junior has four touchdowns to go along with his impressive 16.8 yard-per-catch average.

Pinckney, a 6-2, 180-pound sophomore, has started five games and leads the Cardinal with a 17.3-yard average. He has 17 receptions for 294 yards and three touchdowns. His most productive day came in a 27-24 loss at Utah. He caught six balls for 148 yards.

The local pair had good outings last Saturday which enabled Stanford to upset UCLA 17-14.

McCaffrey, who had five catches for 82 yards in a 27-17 loss to top-ranked Notre Dame, had five receptions for 50 yards last week, including a 12-yard TD catch which put Stanford (2-7, 2-4) ahead 7-0 in the first quarter. McCaffrey also had a big game against San Jose State (10-165).

Pinckney had two catches for 25 yards against UCLA.

McCaffrey currently boasts 77 career receptions for 1,301 yards and six TDs. He finds Stanford's record hard to accept after having had a taste of success when he helped Stanford go 8-5 and make the Gator Bowl in 1987.

Yet this season is not as big a disappointment as last year was. McCaffrey, who was a rare non-redshirting freshman when he arrived at Palo Alto, had to use his redshirt year last season when he bruised his thigh on the second day of practice and it later calcified, forcing him to miss the season.

"It was really frustrating sitting out," said McCaffrey during a phone conversation last week. "It's definitely upsetting to lose football games, but I am happy to be back."

Part of the reason behind the current Cardinal struggle is the fact that they have a new head coach in Denny Green.

Former head coach Jack Elway, father of the former Stanford star and current Denver professional quarterback John Elway, was dismissed last December after the Cards finished 3-6-2 last season. The team experienced losing seasons in four of five years under Elway (25-29-2).

Green, 39, was an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers before becoming the fourth Division I black football coach.

He worked under former head coach Bill Walsh at Stanford in 1977 and 1978, then followed him to the 49ers in 1979 as running back coach. He returned to Stanford in 1980 as offensive coordinator under Paul Wiggin. He was also the head coach at Northwestern from 1981 to 1985.

One of the first things Green did to the Cardinal team was trash Elway's run-and-shoot style and employ a more balanced attack.

"The system was a bit more complicated at first because we weren't familiar with it, but we got it down by the start of the season," said McCaffrey, who was named as a Parade All-American after his senior season as a tight end and quarterback at Central Catholic.

But what started out as a ball-control attack turned into a passing attack as injuries to Stanford running backs caused the Cardinal to pass the ball 120 times in back-to-back games.

Overall, the offensive scheme is similar to that which led the 49ers to Superbowl victories.

"We go from two to four wide receivers at a time and use several of the same plays the 49ers do," said McCaffrey. "John Taylor is their 'X' receiver so if you were watching them, you would see the same routes that I run."

Stanford has a storied history of passing the ball. Included in that are quarterbacks Elway, Steve Dils, Turk Schonert, Jim Plunkett, and John Brodie - and former pass catchers James Lofton, Emile Harry, Darrin Nelson, Ken Margerum, Tony Hill, Brad Muster (a running back), Randy Vataha, and Gene Washington.

Many consider the speedy McCaffrey (4.47 in the 40) in the same vein as some of those all-time greats and the spectacular Pinckney's making just as much noise.

Pinckney caught 42 passes for 1,200 yards during his final two seasons at Becahi. He was named All-State his senior campaign and was redshirted his first year at Stanford.

McCaffrey gives some of the credit for their success to their roots.

"The East Penn Conference is a great league as far as talent. It's one of the better ones in the state and even in the country. I think there's a lot of good football played there," he said.

The two Lehigh Valley players are friends, but see little of each other off the field.

"We get along great during the season," said McCaffrey of his relationship with Pinckney. "But we don't have much time to see each other with practice, meetings, eating and going to class."

The duo's daily routine was more than slightly interrupted when the earthquake hit the Bay Area last month.

"We were in the middle of practice and the field started shaking, trees started swaying and buildings were rattling," said McCaffrey. "Fortunately we were in about the safest place we could be. At first it was pretty incredible and scary and everyone was just taken aback. We had no idea of the extent of the damage until later that day. Then it was a really sad time."

Stanford has Arizona State and California left on the schedule.

"Coach Green is an enthusiastic coach and has everyone pointed in the right direction," said McCaffrey. "I kind of thought we'd be going to bowls all the time when I got here, but it hasn't turned out that way. Hopefully I will experience another one. I think we have a great future."